This is the 4th technical assistance meeting held for WIOA Youth Career Pathways NOFO and it was conducted via an online webinar.

1. WIOAYouthCareer
Pathways 2017
Technical Assistance Session 4: December 16, 2017
Webinar

2. Agenda
 1:30-1:50 Introductions
 1:50-2:10 Setting the stage,Theory of Action
 2:10-2:30 Specific expectations of the NOFO, Logic Model
 2:30-3:00Walking through the toolkit in detail
 3:00-3:15 Questions and answers
 3:15-3:30 Finding opportunities for alignment in communities
 3:30-4:00 Building an FAQ and addressing next steps

3. Introductions
 Name
 Organization
 What role do you play? How does your work intersect with
OpportunityYouth?
 What do you hope that this pilot funding opportunity will
do/enable for OpportunityYouth?

4. Objectives
By the end of the pilot period:
1) Department of Commerce will have supported approximately
8-12 regional partnerships in Illinois to develop innovative
regionally-based, cross-sector partnership programs.The
number of regions will depend on the quality, quantity, and
location of applications.
2) The cross-sector partnership programs will have provided
multiple best-practice models and outcome results for the
development of continued funding support throughWIOA
Youth funding
3) At least 2 employers in each regional program will have
committed to providing future support
4) Youth ambassadors from each program will have met multiple
times and have provided program feedback to the Illinois
StandingYouth Committee.

5. Setting the
stage:
Defining
Career
Pathways
The term ‘‘career pathway’’ means a combination of rigorous and
high-quality education, training, and other services that—
a. Aligns with the skill needs of industries in the economy of the
State or regional economy involved
b. Prepares an individual to be successful in any of a full range of
secondary or postsecondary education options
c. Includes counseling to support an individual in achieving the
individual’s education and career goals
d. Includes, as appropriate education offered concurrently with and
in the same context as workforce preparation activities and
training for a specific occupation or occupational cluster
e. Organizes education, training, and other services to meet the
particular needs of an individual in a manner that accelerates the
educational and career advancement of the individual in a manner
that accelerate the educational and career advancement of the
individual to the extent practicable
f. Enables an individual to attain a secondary school diploma or its
recognized equivalent, and at least 1 recognized postsecondary
credential
g. Helps an individual enter or advance within a specific occupation
or occupational cluster

6. Vision and
Theory of
Action:
Career
Pathways
Ownership
CapacitySustainability
Work-Based
Learning
Education
andTraining
Foundational
Skills
A career pathway system emphasizes the
connections between a learner focused
framework and a system focused framework.
Learner focused framework: progression
through an education program and into a
career
System focused framework: career pathway
system development key elements to ensure
long-term feasibility and inclusiveness

7. Vision andTheory
ofAction:
AddressingYouth
Needs
 Developing a career
pathway system
appropriate for
opportunity youth
requires an assessment of
two factors: their degree
of preparation for work or
education and their
ability to take advantage
of that opportunity

8. Vision andTheory
ofAction:
AddressingYouth
Needs
 Identifying obstacles,
challenges, loss
points, and
opportunities allow
communities to
determine critical
needs and the types
of support required.

9. Vision and
Theory of
Action:
Additional
elements
oCommunity Ownership:Community co-ownership among partners
at the local and regional level helps to build capacity among local
actors and builds mechanisms for sustainability
oConsortia Models: Building a consortium helps to consolidate
partners who are often servicing similar constituencies and/or
connecting with the same partners and employers.
oYouth Ownership:Young people can and should be given the
opportunity to speak for their community and their needs

10. Vision and
Theory of
Action:
Sector-
based
strategies
and career
pathways

11. What
opportunity
youth face now

12. Vision for the Future

13. Specific expectations of
the NOFO

14. Core
components
 Program applicants must complete a logic model, the
career pathways self assessment tool, and a
subsequent action plan.
 These tools will be used as part of the pilot program to
benchmark progress and highlight milestones
Logic Model
Career
PathwaysTool
Action Plan

15. Logic Model
Logic Models help an organization to define:
• What are short and long term goals?
• What are the inputs?What will you invest (staffing, funding, technology, etc.)
• What are the outputs?What we are doing? (activities and interventions)
• External factors?What are some things we cannot control?
• Assumptions?What do we already know (what is the existing knowledge)
Logic
Model
Framework
for Activity

17. Process
Measures and
the
Development
of Evaluation
Tools
 Pilot programs will be measured on Process Measures as well as
WIOAYouth Performance Measures
 Process Measures: Pilot programs will be assessed on a series of
process measures which will help to determine what processes are
most important for the development of a model which support
the goal of this pilot period, which is to develop an approach
which supports regions to work collectively using a career
pathways model to addressOpportunityYouth needs.
Program Activity Process Measure
Participation in
Community of
Practice
 Program leads identify 1 lead to act as program emissary on monthly
calls and bi-annual meetings
 Program emissary participates regularly in the Community of Practice
monthly calls and bi-annual meetings
Youth Participation
in the Opportunity
Youth Ambassador
Program
 Program leads identify 2 opportunity youth to act as program
ambassador
 Youth Program Ambassador participate regularly in monthly calls and
bi-annual meetings
Development of a
Continuous
Improvement Plan
 Program leads provide a continuous improvement plan by the end of
the 2nd quarter of the grant
 Program leads provide regular updates on the continuous
improvement plan during monthly calls
 The continuous improvement plan is used to develop an interim
report at the end of 18 months

18. Assessing
activities and
developing
evaluation
tools
 Pilot programs will also be assessed on their ability to follow
through on activities outlined in their action plan that are directly
aligned to the needs identified in the development of Career
Pathways Self-AssessmentTool and the outcomes identified in
the development of their Logic Model.
 The evaluation tool for future programs will be co-created with
programs as part of this pilot process.

19. Career
PathwaysTool
Kit
 Catalyst for Community Organization!
 This tool allows for a self-assessment of how your organization’s
proposed program meets these core elements and will be used in
order to assess progress and continuous improvement in program
evaluation during the life of the grant.
 This tool identifies basic and advanced program criteria that helps
to identify at which stage of development a career pathway
program is in currently.
 Value judgements will not be made based on the stage of
development of a career pathway program. Rather, program
applications will be assessed on the development of the tool and
action plan in relation to the elements.
 This tool will be used in conjunction with technical assistance
sessions that will be held throughout the application period
and will be used as a continuous improvement resource
throughout the life of the grant .

20. Career
PathwaysTool
Kit
This tool should be developed with cross-sector partners (as
appropriate to the program in question), including:
1. 2 employer partners
2. Local workforce innovation board
3. Local development agency (if different from the IWIB)
4. An area chamber of commerce, CEO roundtable, or similar
private association of businesses
5. Participating community college(s) (as appropriate)
6. Participating school district(s) (as appropriate)
7. Participating 4 year University (as appropriate)
8. Participating community-based and/or faith-based
organizations

21. Career
Pathways
Backbone
Career
Pathway
Backbone
Partnerships
Business
Engagement
Measuring
Results &
Continuous
Improvement
Methodology
Sustainability

22. Career
Pathway
Program
Elements
Career
Pathway
Program
Work-Based
Learning
Credentials,
Certifications, and
Postsecondary
Access
High Demand,
High Skill
Individual Plans
and Supports
Contexualized
Learning and
Workplace
Skills

23. Action Steps/
Tasks
What will be
done?
Responsibility
Who will do it?
Timeline
When will it
begin and when
will it be
completed?
Resources
What resources
are available and
still need to be
obtained?
Partners
Who will be
(need to be
involved) to
carry out this
task/step?
Challenges
What
challenges/
barriers do you
anticipate?
Communication
How will you
communicate
this task/step to
partners?
Accomplishment
/ Outcome
What will this
task/step
accomplish?

24. Specific
Project
Requirements
(page 10-11)
 Applicants are highly encouraged to participate in a consortium
 If they choose not to participate in a consortium, they must explain
their rationale
 Applicants must include a labor market analysis and sound data
that illustrates both the needs of business and opportunity youth
to find points of connection
 Applicants should clearly describe any elements of their projects
they consider innovative (with supporting evidence and specific
intended outcomes)

25. Priority
Consideration
 Priority consideration will be given to regional projects that:
 Develop innovative programs and strategies that are designed to
meet the talent pipeline needs of business
 Identify and/or document partnership with a regional intermediary
who will act as the go-between to coordinate the work of the
separate partners in the development of the career pathway system
 Develop innovative programs that identify activities to improve
linkages and alignment between workforce partners

26. Intermediary
Making the connections between
organizations, managing day to day
items, and acting as the backbone
organization for the initiative.

27. 11:00-11:30
Community
IndividualTime
with the
Toolkit
Additional Questions:
1. What are the unique characteristics of your localOpportunity
Youth population (disaggregated by race, ethnicity, age,
gender, background)?
2. What are the challenges that OpportunityYouth in your
community face?
3. What do the education and career outcomes look like for
OpportunityYouth in your community?
4. Who are the key stakeholders and influential champions who
should be at the table when planning a program for
OpportunityYouth?
5. How do you plan to engage youth in the development of this
career pathway system?
Take this time to address the various components of the toolkit.Where do
you feel that your program has addressed this core component?Who could
you partner with that could address this?Who is not at the table that should
be?

28. Debrief:
What are some
observations
that emerged
as part of your
group work?

29. Questions for
consideration
by local
communities

30. NextSteps
 What additional resources would be helpful to you?
 Additional technical assistance offerings will be available:
 Developing the Logic Model (Available by December
 Questions and Answer Sessions (Early January)
 Employer Engagement
 Applications must be received no later than 5:00 pm February 1,
2017